


Margaritas

by agoodwoman



Series: The First Time [10]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Case Fic, F/M, MSR, The Unnatural, X Files Season 6, mulder/scully romance, season 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-05-10 12:40:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5585719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agoodwoman/pseuds/agoodwoman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Season Six, </p><p>Set after The Unnatural our duo had some drinks and get a little physical.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lime

Mulder set his tumbler down on the slippery counter top with a bit too much force and winced a little at the sound. Scully stabbed at the lime in her glass with her straw and looked over at her drinking partner. There’s a fuzz in her head and she felt the muscles in her body grow heavy from the four margaritas they’ve each consumed. Or was it five?  
  
They’ve been sitting in the Mexican tavern for the last hour. The poor boy went home, the ball equipment had been cleaned up and Mulder suggested she come with him to try amazing fish tacos.  
  
At first she looked at him with disbelief or confusion that he was saying something about something else. However, as she always did, she rode with him in his car seven blocks to Fernando’s Pub, two blocks from Hegal Place.  
  
“This is a nice place, isn’t it Scully?” Mulder said as the bartender brought them another basket of chips and salsa.  
  
Scully leaned against the curved back of the stool and closed one eye to focus better on him. It wasn’t helping. “You think this is nice?”  
  
“Four dollar margaritas and all you can eat chips and salsa,” Mulder leaned back in his chair also to drape one arm across the back of her chair. A lazy thumb traced up the back of her arm and the nerves that felt numb were suddenly tingling.  
  
“It’s a bit…gauche,” she said slowly, willing her body to ignore his touch.  
  
He did that when they shared a beer or two. Lingered in her space longer than normal, touched her affectionately. He was always more generous with his touches than she was.  
  
“It’s authentic! And all this is part of the charm, Scully,” Mulder said, winking before taking the well chewed straw from between his teeth and shoving another chip full of spicy salsa into his mouth. “It’s good.”  
  
Her mouth couldn’t hide it’s smile and she shook her head at him. There was romance in the evening together but Mulder followed it up with a lazy second act of a noisy Mexican pub with good food and cheap drinks. Since she hadn’t been on a date in two years this wasn’t that bad but the man liked the strangest people, places and things. What did that say about her?  
  
Mulder really was blind when it came to women. Not that this counted as a date. Did it?  
  
“So how was life on this planet for you for tonight?” Scully asked as she licked the salt off her lips.  
  
Another margarita each was set on the bar in front of them and he gave a lazy salute to the bartender. “Gracias.”  
  
This was definitely margarita five. At least they were small but the tequila they used at this place packed a powerful punch and Scully had not eaten nearly enough for this.  
  
“Mulder?”  
  
“I like you,” Mulder replied shyly. The thumb was now tracing up her arm and his hand settled heavily onto her shoulder.  
  
“Mulder…” she tried to shrug it off but he pulled her closer to him and she smiled up at him with amusement. She patted his knee and he looked down at it as though suddenly the truth about aliens was written on the back of her hand. It was better than that, it was physical contact that she initiated. “Mulder?”  
  
“Why do you eat non-fat tofruitti rice-dreamcicles?” he asked and she started to pull away. “No hear me out... Is it not enough you eat bee pollen in yogurt and salad with very little dressing? Can’t you live a little and just have full fat, regular ice cream? It doesn’t have to be chocolate or fudge or even cramel swirl. Just even something simple like vanilla.”  
  
“I work with you, my life is very fucking exciting. You don’t need to bring my diet into it,” Scully retorted and started to move her hand away.  
  
Mulder was definitely certain the alcohol had kicked in. When an f-bomb was dropped, Scully was feeling the affects. It was even better when she laughed.  
  
Mulder caught her hand and looked into her icy blue eyes. “I think you look great.”  
  
Normally Scully would roll her eyes, pull away or dismiss the comment. Scully didn’t normally have four margaritas under her belt after eating three fish tacos.  
  
“I didn’t think you noticed,” she snorted.  
  
Mulder laughed. “Scully!”  
  
She pushed on his arm and scowled. “Don’t make fun of me.”  
  
“I’m not making fun of you,” he said, still chuckling at her and pulling her back towards her. “I can’t believe... Do you really think that?”  
  
A flush crept up her cheeks and, she tried not to but, nodded.  
  
“I am a man,” Mulder stated obviously and she looked at him blankly. “I have eyes. I see you.”  
  
He shook his head in disbelief. The man who believed everything did not believe this. There was a list there including her cancer diagnosis and the fact that he noticed her sexually.  
  
“I mean... earlier this year, I saw...” Mulder gestured to her body. “It’s very nice.”  
  
“Very nice?” she repeated.  
  
Her tone reflected the same disbelief as when she recited other theories he spouted to her like the Piper Maru carrying extraterrestrial black oils and sea ships that made you age rapidly.  
  
“I don’t want to say something I’m going to get in trouble for,” he mumbled.  
  
Scully took a deep breath and decided if they were in for a penny they were in for a pound. “No, fuck it. Go ahead.”  
  
Mulder stared at her for a beat and decided if he was going to go ahead and throw caution to the wind every other situation, he would go for it. “It’s amazing what those suits of yours hide. And everything I saw... I saw EVERYTHING, was better than I remembered.”  
  
“You never-”  
  
“Bellfleur Oregon was a glimpse then Antarctica,” he reminded her and she nodded. “I’m a gentleman, Scully but damn you make it rough on a guy.”  
  
“I make it rough on a guy?” she repeated. The last margarita was behind her next statement. “Mr Touchy, with the sexual innuendo and inappropriate comments who stands too close no matter where we are?”  
  
It wasn’t as though Mulder thought she didn’t notice he did those things but he was kind of hoping she was as blind to it as she seemed to be of the other men who leered after her. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe if he knew she noticed then he would have to figure out why she never did anything about it.  
  
“Yeah,” he agreed and smiled at her. “It’s rough. And you know... Kind of hard.”  
  
“Kind of?” she said, raising in eyebrow.  
  
“Pretty fucking hard,” he said slowly and thoughtfully as though this was not insinuating more than what it was. Which it obviously was. “It’s rough and hard.”  
  
“Good,” she smiled back. The smile that showed her gums, that meant she was happy or really amused with him. The smile that made something stir in his pants.  
  
“Good?” he repeated.  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
Alcohol had made their brains fuzzy and their filters dissipate while the intelligent conversations also went by the wayside. In the morning they could pretend this evening never took place, as was their nature, or they could move forward in an emotionally non-constipated fashion.  
  
Ten bucks said they would sweep all this under the rug.  
  
Scully took a long sip of her lime-flavoured margarita and Mulder finished his off in one long gulp. The bartender brought their bill around and Mulder slapped his credit card on the counter before Scully could reach for her wallet.  
  
“My treat.”  
  
“You two better be walking,” the bartender said, pointing a thick finger to each of them.  
  
“It’s only two blocks to my apartment,” Mulder assured him.  
  
Scully tried to ignore the implications they were going to be a little drunk and going to his place. It was one thing after a case to split a six-pack in his hotel room because she had the option of stumbling back to her room or sharing a glass of wine as they worked on case notes but it was limited to less than two or three drinks. Not nearly enough to cloud her head and loosen her tongue.  
  
The bartender winked at Mulder before giving Scully an appreciative glance.  
  
“Hey now,” Mulder held his hand up in warning to the bartender.  
  
He shook a finger at the bartender, who responded with his hands up in defense. There seemed to be a conversation between them of gestures and looks that almost mimicked territorial dogs ass-sniffing and peeing on trees. Scully glanced between the bartender and her partner before she pushed on Mulder’s shoulder and attempted to put her feet on the ground.  
  
“You okay?” Mulder asked, slowly looking over to Scully’s direction.  
  
Scully reached out to Mulder’s arm again to steady herself and slowly straightened her shoulders. “I’m fine.”  
  
Mulder stood up and puffed his chest out a little as his head tried to adjust to the new altitude.  
  
“Are you okay?” she repeated his question back to him.  
  
“I drank a couple more than you did.” he told her and she narrowed her eyes at him. “I ordered a shot when you were in the bathroom,” Mulder conceded and let out a long, solemn breath and she scoffed at his confession. “I see now that might have been a mistake.”  
  
Scully laughed. “How many shots?”  
  
“Ummmmm,” Mulder closed his eyes and took another steadying breath. “It might have been more than one.”  
  
Her lips tightened against one another as she fought back a smile. “Okay.”  
  
Mulder took his credit card back from the bartender and dropped a crumpled twenty dollar bill on the table. He gave a mock salute to the man behind the bar before slinging his arm around Scully’s shoulders.  
As they exited out into the cool night air, there was a beat on the curb where he could see her debating whether or not she should call a cab. Scully’s pink cheeks and unsteady feet gave away she might be open to suggestions  
  
“Wanna watch a movie at my place?” he blurted as she started to search her purse for her phone.  
  
“I think that could be arranged,” she replied thoughtfully.  
  
“Now?” he asked dropping his arm and reaching for her hand, tugging her in the direction toward his apartment.  
  
“Your apartment is the other direction,” she informed him and he looked around the outside of the tavern in confusion. She pointed her finger over her shoulder and nodded. “Yeah. That way.”  
  
Mulder looked over her head then down at her face and smiled. “After you, boss.”  
  
“Two blocks of fresh air might sober us up a little,” she said as they started in the proper direction.  
  
“I don’t want that,” he murmured. “I’m quite enjoying swearing, flirty Scully.”  
  
“This version of Scully doesn’t make good choices so this Scully should definitely sober up a little,” she said solemnly.  
  
“Would it be so bad if we made one?” he asked as their feet scuffed along the pavement.  
  
“A bad decision with you and I usually involves jumping on moving trains or following tanker trucks, random bees under jacket collars or chasing someone to antarctica for the other,” she mentioned. “Most recently hijaking cars, chasing down information on ghost luxury cruise liners and visiting haunted houses on Christmas Eve.”  
  
“Jeeze when you put it that way sounds like this last six years have been pretty shitty,” Mulder remarked as he threw his arm over her shoulder again.  
  
“I’m just saying, Mulder, we’ve had some bad ideas,” she pointed out.  
  
Mulder stopped her and turned her to face him as they stood on the corner of Hegal Place. “We had a few good ones, Scully.”  
  
Scully skewed her lips and furrowed her brow. “Name one!”  
  
Mulder slid his hand to her neck and looked into her eyes. “This one felt pretty good.”  
  
“Mulder,” Scully started, her voice was a warning to what they were doing and yet he didn’t care. “It seemed like a good idea at the time was probably the beginning to every story Melissa told me when she was dating or getting bailed out of lock up.”  
  
“Melissa Scully got bailed out of lock up?” Mulder cried, delighted. He had yet to remove his hand from the base of her neck and the other was now resting delightfully on her hip.  
  
“Just once. It was Thanksgiving 1989 and we were in San Diego for Bill’s new posting. She missed dinner and luckily I answered for her one phone call,” she explained, her hands now resting on his hips. “I had her back by dessert.”  
  
“Scully, you enabler. I thought I was the first person you bailed out of jail,” Mulder chastised her and they laughed.  
  
“You’re not the first but probably the last,” she alluded.  
  
Mulder raised his eyebrows and nodded, his face appreciating the implications of what she might have just said. He turned his face down to Scully and wondered if this was a poor place to have their first kiss or if it meant enough that he took her out for drinks and dinner after their date.  
  
Fifteen years ago, Mulder would have kissed a woman before the poor-boy had left the field but he also wouldn’t have thought to take her for dinner and drinks after. A younger Mulder might have had more bravado but a lot less thought.  
  
“Are we there yet?” he asked as he looked around the street.  
  
“Mulder, this is your neighbourhood!” Scully laughed and tugged on his hand to keep walking.  
  
He made no protest that she had slipped her hand into his and noticed that she didn’t pull away when he intertwined their fingers for a more intimate grip. First, teaching her how to swing a baseball bat and now obvious hand holding. Tonight was a night of milestones. If he played his cards right, he might get to have another crack at kissing her.  
  
Outside the doors of Hagel Place, Mulder released Scully’s hand reluctantly to fish his keys out of his pocket. In his befuddled capacity, he dropped his keys between them.  
  
Scully scooped them up for him and managed to slide the key in the lock as Mulder placed his hands bravely on her hips. He rubbed his thumbs across her lower back toward her hips and pushed himself into her. The evidence of his want for her met with her lower back and she felt herself flush all over as his nose rubbed against her hair.  
  
“You smell really good,” he murmured and she placed her free hand on his.  
  
“If you dont stop that I can’t open the door,” she said as she leaned into his touch.  
  
She was definitely getting carried away and she needed to slow this down. Were they ready to do anything physical? The way he had been looking at her lately, since that decontamination shower told her he thought he was. But being ready and thinking you’re ready to take the next step was totally different. Reason told her if she was smart, she would see that physical want and emotional readiness were not intertwined. There seemed to still be some underlying issues they had to deal with.  
  
The little voice in her head that usually took the steering wheel when she had a few drinks under her belt wasn’t listening to reason. Reason would tell Scully that she should get Mulder upstairs, call a cab, get to her apartment and go to bed,  _alone_.  
  
She could do that. She could get upstairs, get Mulder into bed and set up for the morning with water and aspirin then call herself a cab. That was exactly what the respectable Special Agent with the FBI and Doctor Dana Scully would do. Now if Mulder would stop placing soft kisses on her neck she could actually follow through on that plan.  
  
The door opened by pure luck and they managed to get inside the entryway near the elevator. She was just going to get him up to his apartment, call a cab because she left her phone in her car.  
  
She needed to stop Mulder from grabbing her hips like he was and smelling the skin along her neck. There wasn’t anything that had happened they couldn’t take back and sweep the conversation of body parts under the rug.  
  
“What is going on in your head right now?” Mulder asked as he pressed himself into her again.  
  
“I think this is a bad idea,” Scully said with as much conviction as she could muster and he chuckled. “No really, Mulder.”  
  
He turned her around in his arms and they backed into the elevator. It was decidely the best place for him to finally kiss her again and it was better than she had imagined, hopefully more passionate than the one with the Faux Scully on the Queen Anne and everything they wanted since she walked into his office and shut down his theories on extraterrestiral life forms visiting Earth.  
  
Scully was a talented agent, a brilliant doctor and could compartmentalize everything in her life down to where things fit. She guessed Mulder had put her into a box that said “do not touch” after years of her putting up barriers between them. The rebellious parts of him would, on a frequent basis, try to break through these barriers by lingering a hand on her lower back as they walked down hallways, touching small expanses of skin and holding hands when he knew he could get away with it. The restless side of Mulder who liked to thumb his nose at authority and disregard the personal space she needed from the consuming passion that was his drive for the truth.  
  
If she fell into bed with him, he would encase her completely. Maybe it was she who wasn’t ready for this next step. Maybe she was scared to jump and unprepared to be completely consumed by him. But what a way to go.  
  
His strong hands gripped at her hips and pushed her into the wall of the elevator. The doors rang as they opened again and Mulder slammed his hand against the 4 button. He took inventory of her mouth, he tasted the salt and lime of her drinks and massaged her tongue with his.  
  
It was by far the best kiss of her life time and she hoped this wouldn’t be the last time she could experience it. If she could recreate this feeling and this passion with him over and over again. FBI rules be damned. Her mind not have felt 100 per cent on board with where this was going but her body wanted him.  
  
Reason was losing the argument fast of why this was still a bad idea and slowly changing its debate points to “what the hell, just do it.”  
  
She could get her yayas out with Mulder and still work along side him. They had the X-Files back, they were close to getting some answers. Why not go with it?  
  
The car halted and Mulder broke the kiss to pull her down the hallway toward his door. She stumbled a bit on wobbly legs that either had too much kissing and not enough oxygen or two drinks too many. Probably both.  
  
It was a frenzied next few minutes, the act of getting her into his apartment while trying to kiss her and take her clothes off. His baseball jersey was tossed aside, she threw her suede jacket toward the couch and he kicked off his shoes without breaking the kiss. The walk hadn’t done anything for sobering them up and her mind felt as though she could sleep at any moment. What a dream to succumb to. To experience the ambrosia of Mulder’s bed for the first time.  
  
Imagine her surprise when she woke up with a start, mostly naked and next to Mulder without a memory of what happened after they closed his front door.


	2. Salt

The sound of a radio alarm blared through the scope of the bedroom and Scully jerked awake as “ _Welcome to the Hotel California!_ ” sang out from the small speaker to her left. One arm was posessively thrown around her waist and she breathed in the scent of Mulder’s laundry detergent. Her mind panicked, her head was ringing and the inside of her mouth felt like it had recently been carpeted.

 

_What happened last night? What happened after the elevator kiss?_

  
There was a groan from behind her and Mulder rolled over momentarily to slam his hand on the snooze button. He sighed happily as he pulled her back towards him and she felt the thick naked flesh of his morning erection press into her bare backside.  
  
_Oh my god!_ Her mind screamed. _What happened?_

  
  
“Mmmmm morning, Scully,” he sighed happily and burrowed his nose into her hair.

  
  
“Mulder?” she prompted. Her voice was full of worry and confusion.

  
_How was he feeling so calm?_

His eyes shot open and his body jerked. “Woah, Scully!”

  
Mulder pulled back from her body in an attempt to sit up and she held the sheets tight to her chest. Not like he hadn’t seen it before, he had so cavalierly mentioned the night before, however this was different. This was with a sober mind, in a non-life threatening or forced situation while they had no recollection of what happened after they got back to his apartment but the memory of a passionate kiss.

Her hands covered her face and she held the sheets tight to her body with her arms as she wallowed in the feeling of doing something entirely out of character and reckless. Not only that, but with Mulder. Fuzzy minds don’t make the best decisions and this was possibly one of many reasons they didn’t drink to get drunk around one another. They were supposed to respect each other more than this.

“Oh my god,” she said into her hands.

  
  
“What... Scully... What did we do?” Mulder asked as he looked around the room and spotted their clothing scattered as though it had been thrown with each removal. “I mean... I think _I know_ what we did.”

“Oh my god,” she repeated with the same self loathing and regret that she felt the morning after she drank with Melissa and Charlie the first time. They finished a giant bottle of rum between the three of them and spent the following morning losing every ounce of it in the toilets with a disapproving Maggie checking in on them every hour.

  
  
He looked around with a dumbstruck look on his face and she felt mortified. Mulder reached underneath him and pulled out a pair of very small, very lacy black panties with strappy sides.

  
  
“ _Scully_ ,” he said with delight.

She reached out and snatched the undergarments from him and covered her face again. The skin from her cheeks down to her chest was now flushed and pink and if the embarrassment would die down long enough for her to move, she could get dressed, take herself home and then promptly move to California.

  
Mulder took them back from her and held them up in front of him. His smile suddenly disappeared and he handed them back to her. “ _God dammit_!”

  
“Too loud,” she told him wearily as she wiggled under the sheets to put the panties on her. She looked around for a t shirt or anything to cover her top but found nothing.

  
The telephone rang from his side of the bed and he groaned as he reached over to answer it. “Mulder.”

 

Scully spotted her bra hanging off the end of the dresser and she wondered how she could maneuver herself over to that side of the room to retrieve it.

 

  
“Sure thing, Skinner,” Mulder agreed. He pulled a pad of paper and pen from his bedside drawer to write down an address and details. “Maybe an hour and a half from here? I’ll pick up Scully on the way.”

  
  
Mulder hung up the phone and looked over his shoulder to where she was laying. “We have a case in Baltimore.”

  
  
“I need to go home and shower,” she said, not looking at him.

  
  
“You left your overnight bag in the hall after Padgett,” Mulder reminded her.

  
  
There was a clean change of clothes available for her, work calling them and no plausible reason for her to hide at home for the rest of the day. There was another long pause as the air between them became uncomfortable again.

  
  
“Of all the fucking luck.” Mulder threw back the covers and Scully looked away to maintain some realm of modesty as he strode naked to the bathroom.

  
  
He was unabashed about covering his fading erection and in the light of day, without decontamination showers or suits to hide him, Scully could tell all the time he put in at the gym had paid off. The man had a beautiful body.

  
  
Confused and hurt, she took the opportunity to get out of bed and find her top. Her bra threatening to fall behind the dresser and her black v-neck long sleeved shirt was bundled by the door to Mulder’s bedroom next to the shirt he wore under his baseball jersey last night.

  
  
Quickly, she donned her bra and started to turn her shirt right side back in when Mulder came out with a toothbrush in his mouth and a pair of boxers on. “Where are you going?”  
  
“I’m going home to shower and then I’m going to church to pray you and I develop amnesia and last night morning or this morning never happened,” Scully grumbled as she looked around for her pants.

  
  
Mulder disappeared back into the bathroom and returned as she was looking around for her pants with a toothbrush for her. “We have a case.”

  
  
“I need to go home,” she grumbled as she took the toothbrush from him.

  
  
His finger reached out to a small bruise that was developing on her collarbone. “I guess I did that.”

  
  
Scully pushed past him and looked at her top half in the mirror over his sink. She put the toothbrush on the edge of the sink and touched the skin on her neck lightly. There were more than just a few marks on her body that she could attribute to Mulder. The man’s oral fixation with sunflower seeds obviously extended into other areas of his life and Scully suddenly had a flash of Mulder running his tongue and teeth along the expanse of her neck.

  
  
“I don’t remember... I remember some of what happened but not -”

  
  
He leaned around her to spit into the sink. “Yeah, I’ve got some great fucking luck.”

  
  
Scully decided with his moods swinging from anger to wonder and her mind trying to balance out the feelings of nausea and worry, staying here any longer wouldn’t be helpful. It was Sunday. They should take the day to be apart, have a little down time to reflect and show up at the office like nothing happened Monday morning. As far as she could remember, it didn’t. She remembered little bits and pieces but not the actual act.

  
  
If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, he seemed to be angry about it. Angry at her, angry at himself. She could take the hint. As much as he enjoyed flirting with her, actually having sex with her wasn’t on his list of activities he wanted to partake in.

  
  
_How humiliating._ Not only did they get drunk like reckless teenagers but he obviously regretted what had happened. She wiped away a tear as she brushed her teeth. She needed to get out of there.

 

“These are freshly washed,” he said as he came back into the bathroom with bath towels and her overnight bag. “What’s wrong?”

 

“I’m fine.”

 

“Do you think I’m mad at you?” he asked in disbelief and she shrugged. He shook his head “Of course you do. You can have the shower first. I’ll get the coffee on.”

 

Scully stood dumbstruck in the bathroom and slowly took her clothes off and stepped under the hot spray of the water. Of all the ways she anticipated them having a morning after, and she had fantasized about a fair few, this was not the way she wanted it to go. Maybe sneaking to the bathroom to pee, a quick toilette and back to bed for morning sex. Or at least a “good morning, how did you sleep, let’s have a shower and work out more of the last few years of sexual frustration.”

 

As she washed her hair, she thought of all the moments that lead up to this one. The passionate kisses in the hallway and the haphazard way in which they stripped down with the intent to be naked with one another. In their alcohol addled minds, they lowered their inhibitions and purposefully went to bed with one another. _Why couldn’t she remember what happened after Mulder took her shirt off?_

 

The morning after feelings of sex were faded and not fresh in her mind. If they had consummated their relationship and she was penetrated, she would feel the slippery remnants of Mulder’s semen inside of her walls. There was a wetness between her legs but that was it. She didn’t recall a wet spot underneath her and if she could just concentrate harder, she might be able to remember more about their evening.

  
  
As she applied lotion to her skin she examined her abdomen and thighs. There were a few marks from where she tried to recall his teeth and tongue working the skin there. She caught glimpses of what she though was a memory running through her mind. Looking down at Mulder above her as he kissed his way down her stomach.

  
  
Mulder knocked on the door and brought her out of her head. “Scully, coffee’s ready. Can you finish up out here? Or let me in so I can use the shower?”

  
  
Scully opened the entrance to the bathroom and hid behind the wooden door. “I’m not dressed.”

  
  
“Scully, come on,” he urged and pushed the door open a bit further. He glanced down at her and smiled appreciatively at the nude laced bra and panties set.

Scully grabbed her bag and huffed out of the bathroom.

  
  
“What?” Mulder called after her as he stripped out of his boxers.

  
  
There was a mix of embarrassment and frustration welling up inside of her as she donned her olive green tank top and black suit. They had crossed a few boundaries last night but her emotions were all over the place. She felt sick to her stomach from the alcohol and humiliation at what they had done. Why? Shouldn’t this be a good thing?

  
  
Five minutes later Mulder exited the bathroom in his boxers as he used an electric shaver and she was blow-drying her hair next to his night stand. She had prepared herself for long days ahead of her in gas station bathrooms and crummy motel rooms but never at Mulder’s after spending the night naked in his bed with him.

  
  
“There’s coffee ready,” he told her as he pulled out a deep blue suit, white shirt and paisley tie to match. Scully made a face at his choice. “What?”

  
  
“I just wonder where you find these loud ties you like to wear,” she said as she tucked her travel sized blow dryer back in her bag.

 

“I told you I have a standing order with Enzo’s on Conneticut Ave,” he explained as he pulled on his shirt.

He actually did. When they got a new shipment in they were happy to call Mulder with a selection of ties they knew were gaudy and right up his alley.

 

This felt strange to be preparing themselves for the day so openly when there was so much underlying that was unsaid. Of course, if she really wanted to fix things she could tell him his anger was uncalled for and he couldn’t openly flirt with her after acting so annoyed they had spent the night together. He could also pull his head out of his ass and apologize. The last two margaritas were his idea.

 

Rationally speaking, if she wanted to leave she could have left after their third drink but she left her car back at the baseball diamond. Logically, she could have pushed him away and told him no, he would have respected that. But there wasn’t lucidity, there wasn’t reason or sound judgement. There was tequila, hormones and lust bubbling out from seven long years of longing and wanting what had been labelled off limits.

 

Mulder was soon dressed and he poured them each a travel mug of coffee. He handed hers, prepared the way she liked it and joined her at the door to meet Skinner.

 

“You’re going to have to explain why you don’t have your cell phone to Skinner. He said he called you three times on it this morning,” Mulder said as they entered the elevator.

  
“I have a two block walk back over to Fernando’s to pick up your car to come up with an excuse,” Scully grumbled as she slung her overnight bag over her shoulder.

  
  
“We could always cab it to the baseball diamond and take your car,” Mulder offered and took the bag from her. He slid the strap up his arm and took a sip of his coffee.

  
  
“I’ll just say I was with my mother,” she thought out loud.

  
  
“Better than the company you did keep,” he scoffed and took another sip.

 

It was going to be a very long day.

 

  
  
*******  
  
  
The air in Baltimore was cool that morning for the spring and Scully felt a chill run through her as they walked up to toward Jay’s Cleaner’s, a dry cleaning and tailoring business.

  
  
Scully made them stop at a gas station on their way out of Alexandria to pick up provisions for the day. She took three aspirin, drank two bottles of water before they made it to Maryland. Mulder seemed to be exuding no symptoms of a hangover and it only infuriated Scully further. He ate two doughnuts from the gas station while Scully nibbled on saltines.

 

She hated his metabolism among other things that morning.

 

“We’ve got what appears to be a poltergeist,” Officer Leach reported as they approached the doors of Jay’s. “I wouldn’t normally use that word but whatever blew out the windows of this place and killed our vic.”

 

The thirty-something uniformed officer glanced between Mulder and Scully before opening his notebook.

 

“Vics name is Lenny Crowley, night janitor,” Leach tucked his notebook back in his duty jacket. “I called my sergeant who called the chief who had no idea what to do with this. Your boss contacted us when he saw the blotter. I guess you two know what to do when there’s a ghost?”

 

Mulder took off his sunglasses and studied the police officer for a moment. “We have an idea.”

  
“All right then,” Leach nodded. “You want to see the body?”

  
Mulder put a hand on Scully’s lower back. “That’s her area more than mine.”

  
“Coroner is inside waiting for us,” Leach said, nodding toward the door. He handed them a set of boot covers and latex gloves.

  
They stepped over broken glass and debris to walk into a pile of bagged clothing, hangers and more broken glass strewn about. Leach lead them through an area they had cleared off and through to an area with washing machines and dryers. A few sets of ladders were set up and a body bag was waiting at the base.

 

“Dana Scully?” a voice called down from the top of the ladder.

 

Scully squinted from where she was. “Yes?”

 

The medical examiner climbed down from the ladder dressed in blue medical examiner coveralls, goggles and face mask. “Holy shit, it is you!”

 

Scully held her regard as the ME took off his mask and goggles and her face lit up. “Ashley Sullivan?”

 

It had been a year since Scully had seen Ashley Sullivan and the last time was in Beaumont, Texas at a Medical Examiner’s conference. The man was handsome and they had a friendly rapport when they worked together on cases. Mulder ignored Scully when she spoke about him because he assumed, incorrectly, that he was a woman.

  
Mulder watched as Ashley removed his gloves and shook Scully’s hand with his left holding her arm. Scully felt a smile come on her face for the first time that morning and she dropped his hand.

  
“Ashley Sullivan this is Fox Mulder, my partner with the X-Files.” Scully introduced.

  
  
“Ah, at long last we meet,” Ashley greeted and shook Mulder’s hand with a strong grip.

  
  
Mulder might have had three inches on the guy but Medical Examiner Sullivan had previous knowledge of him. Scully could see his the expression on his face transfer from one of curiosity to discomfort. It was a subtle change and probably only noticeable to Scully but it was there.

  
  
“Ashley and I met about four years ago at the ME’s office,” Scully explained.

  
  
Mulder nodded quietly and she could see his face studying all that Ashley was. Standing at 5’10”, Ashley looked more like a guy who belonged in a television commercial for family insurance although Mulder was no slouch either. He had kind blue eyes and a dazzling smile. His favourite book was Moby Dick and he was a navy brat. If Scully was going to be at all interested in anyone, Ashley would be that guy. He looked great on paper, he was straight, single and liked dogs and kids. What Mulder seemed to forget was that she was already in love with someone else and that happened to be the oblivious man she woke up next to, not the man in front her vying for her attention.

  
  
“So can we take a look at the body?” Mulder prompted. He had either decided to ignore the situation or he was planning on being petulant. “Unless you two want to sit here and reminisce about the latest surprise findings of COD in the JAMA last month.”

  
  
Petulant it was.

  
  
Upon studying the body, there seemed to be no wound markers, no signs of a weapon and the victim died from blunt force trauma. Mulder asked for the body to be taken to the ME’s office and he was going to do some research while she did the autopsy.

  
  
Three hours later, Mulder found her in the autopsy bay with a file tucked under his arm. He looked like a cold glass of iced tea on a hot summers day and she felt like a cat that wanted to lick the condensation off the edge of the cup. Meanwhile she felt sweaty and smelly from the chemicals and burnt flesh.

  
  
Scully shed her apron and mask into the bio-hazardous waste bin and walked toward where he was holding a take out bag.

  
  
“I brought you a sandwich and some iced tea,” he said as he held up the bounty of what would be a very satisfying lunch. “Do you want to change?”

  
Scully nodded and pointed over her shoulder toward the locker room down the hall. Mulder followed her inside and she didn’t argue. Partly because it was a co-ed change room and partly because she knew he would want to discuss her findings as soon as possible.

  
“What’s the run down?” Mulder asked as she took out her shirt and pants from the locker.

  
“No trace fibers, no signs of a weapon and the victim appeared to die from blunt force impact,” Scully reported. “Impact points from the X-Rays we took show no discernible object of force. Whatever killed our victim wasn’t typical.”

  
Mulder swung a fist playfully. “None of that going on?”

  
“Yes and our victim was strung up with a series of coat hangers hooked into his skin through the rafters of the building architecture,” Scully told him and Mulder made a face. “Exactly. And what kept him there was the correct number of hooks and chance.”

  
“Why aren’t you changing?” Mulder asked.

  
“Are you going to watch me?” she questioned as she gestured to where he sat on the bench.

  
“After last night you...” Mulder rolled his eyes.

  
Scully’s face flushed and she crossed her arms in front of her abdomen. “Mulder, no matter what you think happened last night-”

  
“Scully, I know what happened last night.”

  
“Do you?” she challenged.

  
“We drank a little too much, we kissed like mad teenagers, we did the wild thing and then you woke up and decided this morning you should flirt with ME’s from Baltimore,” he reported with a snarky tone.

  
He was unbelievable and petulant.

 

“I’m _not_ flirting with Ashley Sullivan,” Scully denied. She wasn’t. Not on purpose and certainly not to get back at Mulder for hurting her feelings. “You were the one who was angry this morning.”

 

  
“Only because I couldn’t remember everything and if after six years of wondering, finally making love with you wasn’t something I was hoping we could disregard,” he said tensely and stood up. “I just didn’t expect you to wake up and forget  all about it the second we saw an old pal of yours. I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

 

Scully stood dumbstruck with her clothes in one hand and confusion filling her mind. She certainly wasn’t flirting with Ashley. He was a colleague and barely a friend but not a romantic interest by any means. He was being ridiculous. She’s put her career and her life on the line for him. As she dressed into her suit for the day, the anger of how she was feeling welled up inside her again. This was definitely a sign they weren’t ready for whatever romantic entanglements they had found themselves in.

  
She had splashed some water on her face, refreshed her deodorant and perfume and joined Mulder in the lobby.

  
“Is that something an ethereal being could manufacture with some phantom knowledge?” Mulder proposed a continuation from her earlier point.

  
  
Apparently however he was feeling wasn’t something he was going to display in public for the Baltimore ME’s office to judge. That was a relief.

  
  
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that, Mulder?” she countered with a grin.

  
  
“Well I’m curious if this was a well planned murder or a poltergeist or incorporeal being as Skinner tried to suggest. I just don’t want to be strung up by my own petard if this turns out to be a hoax right after we got the X-Files back.”

  
  
“Mulder the Skeptic,” Scully replied.

  
  
“Skeptic,” he scoffed. He was almost offended but more-so amused.

  
  
“Well, why don’t you show me the research you gathered while I was doing the autopsy on Lenny Crowley and we can decide if a poltergeist is plausible,” Scully replied. She was trying not to smile but she was failing on all accounts.

  
  
“Scully you really know the way to a man’s heart.”


	3. Cointreau

  
As it turns out, the forensics team collected four hairs and a partial thumb print that didn’t belong up where Lenny Crowley was found. Poltergeists weren’t supposed to leave any trace evidence and Mulder’s hesitation grew toward the claims made by Jay Prentiss, owner and operator of Jay’s Cleaners.

  
  
While Scully was performing the autopsy, Mulder had done a bit of research into the history of the area. No grave sites, no old churches or burial grounds ever resided at the cleaners. His theory was that Lenny Crowley was a forty-two year old father of three, recently divorced and ran a relatively small janitorial business. Other shops in the neighbourhood utilized his services and he was well liked among the community.

  
“You’ve been busy,” Scully noted as she looked through Mulder’s research. The sandwich he brought her was in one hand with the notes on her lap. Eating in a moving car while looking through case files seemed to be a mutually developed skill.

  
  
“You’d be surprised what I can accomplish in three hours,” he said and shifted in the drivers seat slightly.

  
Scully regarded him for a moment. “I’m sure.”

  
Mulder stopped at the light and looked over at her appreciatively. “Just wait.”

  
A blush crept up her cheeks and she narrowed her eyes at him. “I have.”

  
His mouth turned into a smile and Mulder glanced at the intersection then leaned across the sedan to kiss her softly on the lips. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

  
She opened her eyes, not realizing she had closed them and looked down at his mouth again. The desire she felt last night was bubbling up inside of her and she knew that she needed to tell him they hadn’t actually had sex. She was remembering more as the day went on and what she knew for certain was that if she had slept with Mulder, she would possibly feel it the next day.

  
  
The hangover wasn’t indicator enough to prove something did or did not happen.

  
“Mulder-” she started.

  
“I know, sorry... Not while we’re working, right?” He pulled away from her and sat up straight in his seat. “I just... I don’t want us to act like it didn’t happen.”

  
“We’re talking about it enough,” she remarked as the light turned green and they continued their way toward the forensics lab at the Maryland department.

  
She wasn’t sure what she was expecting from them. Non-discussions of what happened, small gestures of their affection and possibly an innuendo or two within the privacy of the car. She wasn’t expecting Mulder’s anger and her frustration nor was she anticipating regret and fear they’d made a mistake. Except she was sure now that they didn’t have sex so she was feeling what?

  
Relationships and sex were messy and Scully wasn’t use to mess. She was used to tidy corners, clean spaces and locked away feelings she did not want to but sometimes did let out. Her emotions lead her to make rash decisions. It lead her to the FBI and into bed with Jack Willis. It lead her into following Mulder to the edges of the earth and logically, she knew it was because she cared deeply for him. If she was recalling Phillip Padgett, he classified it as her being in love.

  
And since Scully wasn’t usually the type to have sex with people she didn’t have some romantic affection for, usually love, Mulder could take that kissing him, climbing on top of him in his bed, tossing her own bra across the room and sliding down his body to take his engorged member into her mouth as-

  
Scully stopped herself from that line of thought. Her cheeks flushed at the heated memory and she needed to remember what was important. They needed to clear the air and it would possibly be uncomfortable but they could do it.

  
“I don’t mean to be hot and cold with you today but this morning you weren’t exactly how I thought you would react-”

  
“Mulder, we drank more than we usually do, we kissed and went to bed together,” she cut him off as she finished the last bite of her sandwich. “That’s never happened to us before.”

  
Mulder smiled at her. “No, it hasn’t.”

  
“So... I wasn’t expecting to wake up there,” Scully said somewhat frantically as crumpled the wrapping of her sandwich and put it in the bag. “And I don’t know how to tell you this but we didn’t-”

  
Mulder’s cell phone rang and he held up a finger. “Mulder?”

  
He scoffed and handed the phone to her.

  
She looked at him warily before taking the phone. “Scully?”

  
“Hi Dana,” Ashley Sullivan’s voice rang through the phone. “Your cell went right to voicemail and I wanted to let you know that we found another hair on Crowley’s body.”

  
“Where?” Scully asked as she glanced over to Mulder. He had his ‘pretending to be nonchalant’ face on.

  
“It was a pubic hair in the collection kit! A really good one,” Sullivan said happily. Mulder turned to Scully at the news and she made a face. “Anyway, I’m having it sent over to the forensics lab. Where are you?”

  
“Mulder and I are on our way there,” Scully replied and glanced over at him.

  
“Keep me posted okay? I’d like to find out if there’s more than some spooky shit going on,” Ashley said with a laugh.

  
“Sure, I’ll call you later,” she replied and hung up the phone. She looked over toward Mulder and noticed he was clenching his jaw. “He’s just a colleague, Mulder.”

  
“Colleagues like you and Pendrell or colleagues like you and me?”

  
Scully furrowed her brow. “What?”

  
“Well in both scenarios we have something in common, an affection for you but in the scenario with you and I, I would hope it would be reciprocal,” Mulder said. “Unless you and Pendrell had a wild romance I don’t know about and reenacted page 437 of Padgett’s novel except substitute the Stranger for a very hairy, but very brilliant lab technician.”

 

  
“Mulder!” Scully couldn’t help but laugh.

  
“I’m being serious and you’re making fun of me?” he said in what seemed like mock hurt. “I’m trying to talk to you.”

  
“I would think you know me better than that, Mulder,” she repeated her earlier words regarding her and Padgett.

  
“I thought I did but then I found out you have man-friends named Ashley and all of your panties are from the Victoria’s Secret professional and sexy section,” he huffed.

  
The car ride grew quiet and Scully looked out the window in thought. “Maybe you don’t know some things about me but you know me.”

  
“Sure, I know how you like your coffee, I know to keep chocolate in the office when you go on a bee pollen kick and I know you like to sleep on the left side of the bed when we’re on the road but at home you sleep on the right,” he said as he rambled off. “I know your skin is soft everywhere and you were better than I ever thought you’d be at-”

  
“Mulder!” Scully cut him off.

  
“I don’t remember much after that but I remember that,” he said as they pulled into the parking lot at the Baltimore Police Department parkade and he noticed the blush deepen on Scully’s cheeks. He unlocked his seat belt. "I wish I could remember more...”

  
“Mulder we didn’t-”

  
  
“Scully, it’s fine. I just would like a chance to maybe be a bit more memorable,” he said with a shake of his head. He looked around the parkade that was full of cars but absent of any bodies and leaned across the car again. “We can try for a do-over tonight after dinner. No tequila, just you and me.”

  
“It wouldn’t be the-” she started again.

  
“I’m going to kiss you, Scully,” he cut her off.

  
“Mulder wait-” she started but his mouth closed over hers and she lost herself in the sensation of being properly and thoroughly kissed by Fox Mulder.

  
It was better than the alcohol induced kisses from last night because her senses were fully alert. She wasn’t numbed by too much alcohol and he tasted like sunflower seeds and something better than lime, a sweetness she couldn’t quite pin down. He slid his hand inside her jacket and up her abdomen toward her breast. She was evading reality of where they were, what they were doing so publicly and confronting head on that if she was unsure of anything, it was slipping away to assured want.

  
Her fingers thread into his hair, she moaned as he cupped her breast and she clutched her other hand desperately onto the lapel of his jacket. He was too good at this. It was becoming heated in the car and Scully worried a detective or patrol cop would walk by as they were steaming up the windows. Her worry for her reputation in regards to the paranormal was one thing but being caught with your pants down was another.

  
Mulder’s free hand crept up her knee and his thumb made contact with her center. She tried not to cry out but failed.

  
Mulder broke the kiss and leaned his head against hers. “Sorry.”

  
“For what?” Scully asked as she wiped at the edges of her mouth with the hand that was previously in Mulder’s hair.

  
“I just... I thought I could control myself when we were alone,” he admitted with a smile as he slid his hand back toward a more proper placement on her knee.

  
“We need to talk tonight, after work,” she told him as she tried to sit up in her seat.

  
Mulder sat up and watched as she smoothed out her hair and reapplied her lipstick with the visor mirror. “You’re not going to give me some bull shit line about last night being a mistake, are you?”

  
“No Fox Mulder I’m not going to tell you some bull shit,” Scully snapped as she closed the visor. “I just want us to talk, calmly and rationally. Something we should have done last night before getting naked.”

  
“You know, not everything needs to be some analytical, prudent dissection of our actions toward a collective agreement we’re making the right choices,” he said as he fixed his tie.

  
“You need to get your head out of your ass,” Scully said as she rolled her eyes and exited the car.

  
****

  
The forensics team were still working on a majority of the collected samples from the crime scene and needed a few hours with the pubic hair found on Crowley. What they did discover was that the partial print matched the prints they gathered from Jay Prentiss for an elimination card.

  
“How would a partial latent print from the owner of a dry-cleaners end up at near the rafters of a building he has clearly stated he doesn’t do any maintenance on himself?” Mulder proposed as he opened his suit jacket to slide his hands on his hips. “He told me three times this morning he doesn’t get himself involved in the upkeep of the building and he hires that out. My guess is that he’s assuming it makes him seem more affluent however it’s just grandstanding.”

  
  
“Is it possible he was involved in this and just implicated himself?” Scully proposed as they exited the lab.

  
  
“Worth checking out,” Mulder suggested as they walked toward the elevators. “He’s got his insurance company coming out to assess the situation. We could possibly have him brought into the station to talk about it.”

  
  
Scully nodded in agreement as she glanced over the preliminary trace report from the crime lab. “Why don’t you call Leach and have him brought in?”

  
  
Mulder ran his fingers down the center of her back. “Let’s head down to make a call.”

  
  
As they entered the empty elevator car Scully closed the file and looked up at him. “You need to be more careful with that.”

  
  
Mulder took the file from her. “I’m not being overt.”

  
The nervous tick she had of licking her top lip resulted in conversations such as this. “Mulder, the status of our relationship has shifted and those kinds of actions prior to last night or this morning can’t be brushed off with ‘we just work together’ replies anymore.”

  
“They’re not going to split us up now, Scully,” he said certainly. “After all we’ve been through? Agent Ritter shooting you was the nail in that coffin of any other partner working with either of us. If Kersh tries anything now, all you have to do is mention a pending lawsuit to be filed and he’s ready to back down. He all but said so when I got back to work after bringing you home from the hospital.”

  
She studied his face for a moment. “It’s one thing for a male partner to be sleeping with his female partner. Set aside the reputation I’ve got attached to me since joining the X-Files but it degrades the position I’ve worked hard for.”

  
“Are you worried about what people would think?” he asked and hit the emergency stop button on the elevator wall.

  
“Mulder!”

  
“No seriously, after all this time, are you still worried people will call you Mrs Spooky?” he challenged and put his hands on his hips as he turned to look at her.

  
“I’ve been okay with people calling me that since we started working together, Mulder,” she argued. “I’m asking for a hint of decorum when we’re among other law enforcement officials.”

  
“So what, I can’t touch you in public now because I saw you naked?” he scoffed.

  
“Mulder, for the last time, I’m not saying no touching. I just need you to be aware sometimes it looks like more than what it is,” she replied. “Ashley mentioned-”

  
“Oh really? What did _Ashley_ say?” he interrupted.

  
Scully licked her lip again. “He just said you were being a little territorial.”

  
  
Mulder pushed her against the wall of the elevator and dropped the file to the floor. He pressed his body against hers and ran his hands down to cup her ass. “Of course I’m going to be a little territorial, Scully.”

  
  
Her eyes closed a the sensations. They really should not be doing this here.

  
  
“I told you earlier this year how I feel about you and you brushed me off. Now that things have gotten to this point, you can’t blame a guy for wanting to make sure everyone else knows it,” he whispered as his mouth brushed against hers.

  
  
“Mulder....”

  
His mouth closed over hers and they repeated their actions in the car, kissing and touching one another where hands could reach and clothing separated them. This was ridiculous, her mind screamed. They were in a Baltimore Police Department elevator that could very well have cameras.

  
They needed to stop what they were doing, they needed balance, rectitude and professionalism. He needed to stop doing that with his hips if she was going to get some level-headed ideas back in her mind than what she was thinking. Dana Scully of the FBI did not make out with men in elevators. She might grab and kiss Skinner... But that was only because he found information to help her find Mulder. This was different. This was rash and lewd but oh god his hardness was pressing into her right where she wanted it.

  
Mulder broke the kiss and licked her saliva off his lips as his body still held her against the elevator wall. Good thing since her legs felt like jello. “I haven’t used the term girlfriend in a really long time Scully... You’re my partner in every sense of the word. And I can’t help touching you. I could try if you really need me to.”

  
“I’ll take your argument into consideration,” she replied breathily.

  
Mulder hit the emergency stop button again and quickly fixed himself up as the elevator car traveled to the 6th floor where Officer Leach was already waiting with Jay Prentiss.

  
  
Scully joined the men in a conference room after a quick stop into the bathroom to fix her lipstick.

  
“Mr Prentiss was just telling us that his insurance doesn’t cover poltergeists,” Mulder said as he sat back in the hard metal chair.

  
“The insurance policies don’t usually cover unexplained phenomena,” Scully said in a mock sadness. “That’s too bad.”

  
“Well what am I supposed to do?” the man shouted at them. “This man ruins my marriage and now he’s ruined my business.”

  
Mulder leaned forward on the table. “How do you mean?”

  
“I can’t reopen if insurance won’t pay for clean up and what not, you need to declare this a murder by an actual human being so I can file my paperwork,” Prentiss grumbled. “My insurance adjuster is waiting.”

  
“We have to explore all avenues of investigation, Mr Prentiss,” Scully informed him as she sat next to Mulder. “You understand that we can’t conclude it wasn’t a poltergeist until we find evidence to the contrary. If there was, in fact, a living human that blew out your windows, strung up Mr Crowley by wire hangers and destroyed the building, we have yet to find any evidence of that.”

  
  
Mulder looked over at Scully in delight before turning his attention back to Jay Prentiss. “You said he destroyed your marriage?”

  
  
“Guy was sleeping with my wife. Thirty years of marriage, kids and a business between us and she falls for the janitor,” Prentiss cried out and slammed his fist on the table. “If he was alive, I would kill him.”

  
“When did you find out about your wife’s affair?” Scully asked.

  
“This morning, when I called her to tell her what happened, she was crying to much to just be concerned for the guy who mops the floors,” Prentiss told them with a shake of his head. He leaned forward on the table. “She confessed everything after that. Lying bitch.”

  
“Well let’s watch our language while we’re in here,” Mulder advised and Prentiss held up his hands in defense. “Well we will look further into Crowley’s life and get back to you. The only thing we did find was your fingerprint up in the rafters near where he was strung up.”

  
“I was at a pub last night with some buddies watching the game,” Prentiss said. “I’ve got a solid alibi from 6-11:30 and when I got home, I paid the babysitter.”

  
“Your wife?” Scully asked. “Where was she?”

  
“She was out with her book club, they were reading that Pearl Earring book,” he said.

  
Scully wrote down the information in her notebook before closing it. “We’ll check all that out. Why don’t you give us the names and lists of the people who can alibi you last night.”

  
Jay Prentiss took Mulder’s notebook and pen from him and began writing down. “With pleasure.”

  
They conferred with Officer Leach in the bullpen as Prentiss continued to write down the names of people who saw him last night.

  
“So you want me to pick up Mrs Prentiss?” Officer Leach volunteered.

  
Mulder nodded. “We’ll go talk to the folks on Mr Prentiss’ list of alibis and meet you back here in a few.”

  
As they departed from the police department Mulder glanced over to Scully with a slight smile on his face.

  
“What?” she asked.

  
“I never thought I’d hear you use a poltergeist as a way of coercing a confession from a suspect,” Mulder confessed.

  
“First spontaneous human combustion and now this. I think I’ve been working with you too long.” 


	4. Ice

The inside of the Rusty’s Sports bar was typical to most Baltimore establishments of that nature. Memorabilia with “one-of-a-kind” but mostly likely fake items hung inside glass casings. There were low tables with comfortable chairs and flat screen televisions plastering every wall. The layout of the bar smartly orchestrated it so there wasn’t a seat in the pub that didn’t have a clear eyeline to a game streaming.

What Mulder and Scully weren’t anticipating was a doppelganger of the bartender from Fernando’s to be working at the pub Jay Prentiss used as an alibi.

“Hey,” Mulder said as he was taking out his badge. “Didn’t we see you...”

The bartender waved his hand at them. “No man. I got a brother who works across town but before you ask, we don’t do parties as a gimmick.”

“Hadn’t even crossed my mind,” Mulder said in a low voice and flashed his badge to the bartender. “Actually we’re asking about some customers who were here last night.”

The bartender set his cloth down on the counter-top and waved them over with his thick fingers. “What did they do this time?”

Scully pulled out a photo of Jay Prentiss. “When was the last time you saw this man?”

“That’s Jay. He’s here all the time,” the bartender said as he took the photo from Scully. “He was here last night. Left maybe a little after eleven thirty.”

The bartender laid the photo down between them and slid it towards the agents as if to end the conversation. Mulder waited a beat for the bartender to offer up any more information yet none was forthcoming. According to the bartender’s code, you didn’t rat on your customers and this one wasn’t breaking any “rules” for the FBI.

“You’re sure he was here?” Mulder asked as he tapped at the photo on the bar.

“I have a Visa receipt but yeah, he’s a regular. Jay sat at that table,” the bartender pointed across the bar to a table with a clear view of the televisions. “Got here around six and left his spot only to use the bathroom.”

Scully took down the bartender’s information and tucked her notebook back in her jacket pocket. “Thank you.”

“What’s this about?” the bartender asked.

“A man was murdered at his business and we’re trying to rule him out as our primary suspect,” Mulder explained.

The bartender’s eyes widened and he thought for a moment. Mulder held his gaze for another beat before nodding his head toward the door as he looked over to Scully.

“Look, the guy might yell at another guy who is rooting against his team but that’s as far as it goes. When you see someone in their drunken state, that’s their true self,” the bartender told them. “What they want, what they say, what they do, it all comes out. People don’t go home together who aren’t inclined to do so under a sober state and no one fights here unless there’s underlying bad blood.”

Scully felt the skin of her neck grow red and Mulder cleared his throat. “Exactly. Thank you.”

****

It took another two hours of canvassing among Jay Prentiss’ friends to confirm his alibi while driving through Baltimore traffic. Even with some evidence pointing to his guilt, Prentiss appeared to be innocent and their case was going no where. Mulder had ruled out a poltergeist but was unwilling to turn the case over to local authorities. Officer Leach was instructed to track down Mrs. Melanie Prentiss and bring her in for Mulder and Scully to question.

Leach dropped a file on the long table in front of Mulder and Scully and put his hands on his hips. He was pacing around the conference room as they watched him reiterate the facts as they knew it.

“The thumb print points to Jay Prentiss but the hairs and fibres are a different story,” he stated. “The hair and fibres tell us... Someone was there and it wasn’t a ghost so, I don’t know. We haven’t located Mrs. Prentiss. She’s not at work or at home. No answer on her mobile.”

Mulder looked down at the file that was spread in front of them. “Did you manage to locate the women from her book club?”

“All of them are volunteering at a bake sale this afternoon at the school,” Leach reported. “We’re going to head out in ten to talk to her friends.”

“Where are you going?” Scully asked as she looked through her notebook. The flush in her cheeks had subsided from the bartender’s comments however his statement rang clear in her mind.

“Stoneleigh Elementary,” Leach said. “Jay Prentiss cleared out?”

“He might be a prick but he’s not a violent one,” Mulder reported and glanced over to Scully. “The bartender confirmed Prentiss signed a receipt for $79.32 on his Visa around 11:30 p.m. We spoke to three people who he listed as being present at the bar. Also, none of them had any idea that Melanie Prentiss was having an affair.”

This was the kind of detective work Mulder and Scully rarely got to practice. They hardly had the opportunity to uncover dirty secrets between spouses that lead to a murder without the summoning of an evil force or an ancient monster. There was a banality to these kinds of cases and Scully could feel the rant of annoyance approaching as she and Mulder waited for Officer Leach to return.

Not only was the paperwork insurmountable but the bureaucracy between agencies forced cooperation Mulder wasn't used to. He couldn't flash his badge, ask for help from the locals and expect everyone to listen because his theory would pan out. They weren't scratching their heads and hoping he would take over. This was a murder and nothing paranormal outside of how Lenny Crowley was found seemed to point to needing Mulder's expertise. 

An officer brought in more forensics reports sent over by Ashley Sullivan with a note attached for Scully to call him with his personal cell number underneath. Mulder had obviously held back a biting remark and Scully tried to ignore him. Her stomach was starting to hope for dinner but if Melanie Prentiss was not interested in giving answers about her affair with Crowley, they might not be fed for a while.

As she was making notes from the report into her own notebook, Mulder placed an apple and a bottle of water in front of her. He dropped a bag of chips on the middle of the table and sat across from her with his own fruit and an iced tea.

“Where did you get the apples?” she asked before taking a bite.

“Officer’s break room on the third floor,” he reported. “I left five dollars in the fruit basket.”

Scully realized Mulder probably didn’t know what a gallon of milk cost much less a few snacks. “Thank you.”

He took a healthy-sized bite of his own Golden Delicious and she watched as he licked the juices off his lip. Her mind traveled to untoward places of what those lips felt like on her own. If the sexual chemistry between them had been bad, it might make it easier not to think about what he could do to her constantly. But it wasn’t bad. The kisses excited her. He tasted like she had always imagined and she longed for his hands to touch her body in places normally hidden by clothing.

She pressed her thighs together and squirmed in her seat as she tried to focus back on the hair and fibres report.

“I know that look,” Mulder said as he watched her write her notes.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she denied innocently but a smile played on her lips.

“We’re at _work_ , Dana Scully,” he chided her and she felt her face flush. When she glanced up to see the look on his face, she recognized the predatory gleam in his eyes and she ran her tongue along her lower lip. “ _Tease_.”

She laughed and shook her head. “I don’t know what you mean.”

This banter between them was more than distracting. She would need to ensure if they - actually when they consummated their relationship, she kept her head about her. At first, she found the friendship blossoming between them interesting and inspiring. The work they did fueled that friendship and she found herself bound to him more than everyone else in her life. He knew truly what she had gone through and she learned to trust him above every other. It also didn't hurt that there was a spark or a chemistry between them. At first she found herself trying to fight it but by the time he tried to kiss her she was aware it was inevitable. It stopped being a matter of _if_ but a matter of _when_.

The when started to worry her last year. What could happen between them if they did? Would he expect her to change if she slept with him? Did he expect her to become a believer? She certainly didn't anticipate that allowing him into her bed would change him into being a skeptic.  

He leaned back in his chair and took another bite of his apple as he studied her openly. “I think you know what that does. I think you remember more about last night as the day goes on. Like how it felt when we were in bed.”

“Mulder-” she warned. The kind of warning that said _not here, don’t do this now but also you should know we haven’t actually had sex_.

“It’s fine Scully. I’ve been thinking about that too,” he assured her. He took a small bite of his apple and she willed her body to calm itself. Her body was more stubborn than his personality. “I just didn’t realize you were the kind of woman who thought about that at work.”

An officer knocked on the conference room door and popped his head in. “Agents, Officer Leach is back with Melanie Prentiss. She’s waiting in interrogation room 2.”

Mulder nodded toward the officer and donned his jacket. “Soon.”

Scully took a calming breath. “Soon.”

 

 

***

 

  
The difference between paranormal killers and every day human murderers was that the humans sometimes felt proud of their acts of depravity. Animals possessed by spirits, monsters conjured up by the unstable and humans all had one thing in common. They had a thirst for revenge and Melanie Prentiss seemed to be no different.

Personality types prone to murder range from chronically aggressive individuals, the over-controlled hostility type, the hurt and resentful, the traumatized, the obsessive, the paranoid and the bad and angry. On paper, any of these things could describe Mulder and Scully and therefore they attempted not to push these personality types onto suspects if they could avoid it.

Melanie Prentiss was more than just a few of these different types of killers rolled into a petite woman with an acidic tongue. She smiled sweetly at Mulder. She tried flirting her way out of questioning but eventually, she sat back on her chair and admitted to the murder of Lenny Crowley.

“Did you call my husband?” she asked in a syrupy voice.

It was the kind of saccharine tone that Scully recognized from waitresses and cashiers, flight attendants, receptionists and ticket agents. They spoke to him an octave higher than they spoke to Scully. They looked at him like he was the last piece of chocolate in the house and they always showed their teeth when they smiled. It truly was confusing to Scully to witness these women behave this way because usually the unaware or uninterested Mulder would look at Scully as though she was supposed to stop it. He would stand just a little closer to her while while touching her more and attempting polite conversation that hinted he wanted nothing to do with them. He was the strangest man she’d ever met and yet she knew she was head over heels for him.

“He’s on his way, Mrs. Prentiss,” Mulder assured her.

“For the last time, it’s Melanie,” she said with a sigh. “Anyway, I don’t know what else there is to tell you. I killed the cheating bastard. Can I smoke in here?”

“No you may not,” Mulder replied.

“Mrs. Prentiss, you really should wait for your lawyer,” Scully advised her.

“I just need to tell him I told you everything but no judge is going to convict me,” Melanie said confidently. “Lenny Crowley seduced me, used me and then abused me. I’ll be out in six months on good behaviour. I’m a member of the fucking PTA and I’m on the Christian Education board at our church.”

Mulder snorted from where he stood behind Scully. “Nice.”

“How did he abuse you?” Scully asked from across the table while glancing over her shoulder to Mulder.

Melanie’s smile faded. “He didn’t love _just_ me.”

Mulder tapped Scully on the shoulder and leaned down to her ear. “She’s possibly certifiably crazy and I just want to remind you of this moment when we show up in court in three months to testify about why we arrested her.”

Scully looked up at him. “Melanie, I think we’ll come back in to discuss the details when your lawyer is present.”

Leach held the door for Mulder and Scully and closed it behind them as they waited in the hallway for Melanie’s lawyer. He looked from Mulder to Scully and crossed his arms as he leaned against the door.

“This probably isn’t what you two were expecting when you were called out here,” Leach guessed.

“To be fair, poltergeists rarely claim to be abused women after making a cuckold of their husbands yet they don’t lie about committing murder either,” Mulder replied dryly. "Poltergeists are an unrested soul or a corporal being trying to avenge some wrong in their lives. If they were to commit a murder it wouldn't be on Lenny Crowley."

Leach frowned at Mulder and walked off to get a cup of coffee.

“Are we staying for statements?” Scully asked him and the tone of her voice told Mulder he should say no.

“Well, her lawyer should be here soon. We can take her statement and get her processed at least for the morning run to court,” Mulder said and looked at his watch.

“Her lawyer might ask for her to be arraigned on bail tonight and brought in tomorrow morning for further questioning,” Scully pointed out.

“Oh no, she admitted to it. She’s not going home tonight.” Mulder put his hands on his hips and shook his head. He was now pacing around Scully slowly. “She cheated on her husband and killed her lover. She’s going to jail.”

“I’m starting to question whether she’s right about her sentencing,” Scully admitted.

Mulder stopped short. “Why?”

She shook her head. “She’s the next candidate for the Harper Valley PTA.”

Mulder appreciated the reference to the 1960s song.

“Mrs. Johnson was widowed and this is the kind of behaviour that would get more than a letter sent home,” Mulder reminded her of the and she shrugged in response. “I hear you. So?”

“ _So_ I don’t want her to get off that easily,” she said with a shake of her head. “I can’t see this man’s murder go unpunished. If he was a man who had an affair or not, he's dead and by the hand of that woman. She deserves punishment for her crimes.”

Mulder nodded. “If her lawyer agrees to questioning tonight, we can go in there. But I think he’s going to push for her to go home and come back in the morning with some very well thought out answers.”

“She already has her defense testimony, Mulder,” Scully pointed out. “She is going to misuse a defense tactic that actual abuse victims need.”

Mulder reassuringly squeezed her upper arm and she nodded. “She won't get away with this, Scully. And I'm the last person to say we should take a break but... We need food and a proper nights rest.”

She nodded as she studied the top of her shoes.

“Agents!” Officer Leach announced. “We have good news and bad news.”

“Only give me good news,” Mulder said with a hand help up as to stop the officer.

“The good news is that you two can go home. We’re booking Melanie Prentiss on first degree murder,” he said with pride.

A balding man in his early forties approached from behind Officer Leach. “Bad news is that her lawyer is one of the top criminal lawyers in the tri-state area and he’s coming in tomorrow morning.”

Mulder put his hands on his hips in that territorial way he did when other cops encroached on a case. “Detective?”

“Fuller. Jim Fuller.” He extended his hand to Mulder who shook it reluctantly. “Look, the good news is you get to go home and sleep this one out and come back to hit her hard in the morning. Celebrate that. Her lawyer, Tom Dillard-”

“ _The_ Tom Dillard?” Mulder interrupted with sarcasm.

“Since you’re not used to actually spending time in court, Agent Mulder, you might want to brush up on protocol,” Fuller remarked snidely. “There’s nothing _spooky_ about any of this. Just straightforward law. The DA will be coming in when her lawyer arrives to further questioning.”

“What would you like from us now?” Scully asked to distract Mulder and Fuller from peacocking around on another.

“Go home, get a good nights rest and come in with fresh eyes on all of this because we need to hit Dillard hard,” Fuller replied.

"What will you be doing tonight?" Scully asked.

"We have a CSU team at the Prentiss home, I'll be heading over there shortly," Fuller stated. "You've been on this since the morning. We can't do much without you since the spooky element is still tied to it until one of you deems it otherwise. Will you be calling off the priests and villagers from the poltergeist?"

Scully opened her mouth to retort but Mulder tapped her on the lower back.

“We’ll be here at seven,” he said and Scully nodded in agreement. 

“Where will Melanie Prentiss spend the night?” Scully asked.

“She’s in lock up over night,” Fuller reported and Scully nodded as though that was sufficient. “See you at seven.”

Mulder gave Fuller a tight smile and took Scully by the elbow toward the conference room where their files and jackets were. They were practically racing toward the door.


	5. Tequila

  
Mulder pulled into the space next to Scully’s car at the baseball diamond and put the car into park. He left the engine idling as he undid his seatbelt. She maneuvered herself to look at him in her seat and he did the same.

“Food?” Mulder asked.

Scully nodded. “Why don’t we... I could cook us something?”

Mulder’s face lit up and he tried to recover to playing it cool but she could see his delight. “Sure. What do you cook Scully besides... I mean, do you make more for yourself than salad and bee pollen?”

She reached across the car to swat at his arm and they shared a laugh. “I can make things. Can you?”

“I can make...” Mulder stopped himself. “I can follow recipes. I think I made a lasagna once.”

She raised her eyebrows. “How did it turn out?”

Mulder laughed. “Better than the relationship but that’s not saying much.”

She pursed her lips and nodded. She was unsure how much she wanted to know about the women in Mulder’s past or the romantic things he did for them. Perhaps that was why the majority of the gifts from Mulder were sports movies and keychains.

Mulder must have sensed her curiosity or just knew that after so many years together, Scully would always have a follow up question. As he opened his mouth, she held up a hand to stop him.

“I don’t think I want to know that right now,” she told him and he nodded. She thought for a moment. “I have enough in my kitchen to put something together.”

Mulder nodded. “I want to run home and shower. I can be at your place in an hour?”

She nodded and felt a flush of embarrassment. They rarely made plans like this with intent and romantic undertones. The way he asked her to play baseball hinted at more, however on the surface it looked like a very crappy gift.

Mulder reached across the car and pulled her to him to kiss her. Her mouth lingered on his for a moment before their lips parted to taste one another. She pushed on his chest to prevent them from getting carried away. She still needed to drop the truth bomb of no sex last night to him.

“I’ll see you in an hour,” she said breathlessly as she reached for the door handle. She glanced down at the erection tenting in his trousers and she felt a thrill run through her.

Mulder adjusted himself and smiled apologetically. “It knows what it wants.”

It took Scully fifteen minutes to get to her apartment and another twenty minutes to put a curry casserole in the oven. She spent twenty five minutes showering, shaving and plucking as she primped for Mulder to arrive. Part of her felt silly but the other part of her was excited. She wanted him and he obviously wanted her.

There was a soft knock at the door and she looked at her watch in confusion at Mulder’s promptness. She tugged on the hem of her baby blue sweater and smoothed her hands along the front of her dark jeans.

Who she saw on the other side of the door was not who she was expecting. Ashley Sullivan stood there with a bag of take out, a case file and a stupid grin on his face.

“Ashley,” she greeted, perplexed by his arrival at her door. She tried to think of when she had given him her address and it must have been over four years ago but she can’t remember why.

“Dana, I have some really great information on the case. Can I come in?”

Scully looked over Ashley’s shoulder to see Mulder approaching behind. He was holding flowers and a bottle of wine while wearing his best pair of worn out jeans, leather jacket and a cotton t-shirt. He might have looked casual to everyone else but to Scully, he looked perfect. She saw his eyes widen at the ME standing at her door and shook her head at Mulder. He looked at the flowers and wine in his hand and retreated back toward the elevator.

“You have plans?” Ashley asked.

“It’s late,” she replied apologetically. “I was just going to eat-”

“Something smells good,” he said as he looked over her shoulder. “Anyway, I brought Chinese. I really think we have something interesting here with the case.”

“Mulder and I already-”

“This is better than whatever you got today, I promise,” he insisted.

Scully smiled tightly and opened the door for Ashley to come in. She needed the men around her to let her finish talking before they made assumptions. Part of her wondered if Mulder had left for the night or if he planned to call her from the car with an excuse for her to leave. If there was ever a time to have Gibson Praise hanging around with mind-reading abilities, this might be it. Although she didn’t really want Gibson to know how she was really hoping for this night to end.

Mulder approached down the hallway without wine or flowers and they shared a look.

“Hey Ashley Sullivan, just in time,” Mulder said as he breezed in.

Ashley looked between the partners. “Dana, I didn’t realize we were going to be a threesome.”

Mulder made a face at the innuendo and Scully’s tight smile became tighter.

Ashley took his shoes off at the door and set the food down on the table before shedding his jacket. Mulder followed suit and stood across from Ashley in her dining room.

She looked at her open door and wondered how rude Miss Manners would consider her to be if she merely put her own shoes and jacket on and left them in her apartment.

The oven timer went off and she knew she had no choice but to stay. The door closed and Scully dutifully tended to the food in her oven. She started twenty minutes on the timer, started the rice on the stove and turned to the men staring at her.

“So,” she started.

Ashley had already started to unpack the Chinese food which was labeled “Dinner for Two” and laid the case file out at the other end of the table. He gave a quick glance to Mulder in curiosity and confusion when Mulder helped himself to a beer from Scully’s fridge.

“Let’s get to investigating,” Mulder said and he sat down at the table. He took a long pull from the beer with an open look of territorial confidence. He put his arm across the back of the chair next to him. Ashley sat down across from Mulder gingerly and watched Scully as she took out plates from her cupboard for them.

Scully handed Mulder utensils and napkins before pouring herself water. “Would you like some water, Ashley?”

Ashley looked to Mulder as he took another pull from the beer. “Sure, Dana. Water is fine.”

Scully quietly made herself a plate while throwing looks over to Mulder. His dominating presence was not unnoticed by Ashley, who was slow to pick up on the fact that Scully looked the way she did because she was expecting company. Mulder’s company.

Mulder gave Ashley a tight smile. “What did you uncover that we didn’t know from Melissa Prentiss’ confession?”

Ashley took a few bites of his rice and shook his head. “Melissa Prentiss had accomplices.”

Mulder set his fork down and looked across the table at the ME. “How are you sure?”

“Hairs we discovered had no DNA evidence but had trace amounts from three different shampoos. No woman uses three different shampoos,” Ashley reported and took a bite of the beef broccoli on his plate.

Scully shook her head. “She didn’t mention any accomplices.”

“She only said she did it,” Mulder reminded her. “Easiest confession I’ve ever gotten and I interviewed Boggs.”

“Luther Lee Boggs?” Ashley repeated and Mulder nodded. “You’ve really seen some shit.”

Mulder held up his beer and Ashley clinked his glass. Scully wasn’t sure if it was good they were becoming friendly or bad. If the situation was uncomfortable, Ashley might leave and she could apologize tomorrow morning.

“Didn’t you meet him Dana?” Ashley asked Scully and she nodded. “Right around when your dad passed, right?”

Mulder’s jaw clenched and she could see the internal struggle of Mulder wanting to ask how the hell he knew that. They only met four years ago and Scully wasn’t an open book.

“Anyway,” Ashley perked up suddenly and oblivious to the tension in the room. “I think you might be able to go after more than just Melanie Prentiss.”

Scully swallowed her bite of almond chicken. “How?”

“I think her friends were in on it,” Ashley mused as he pulled the file across. “What we discovered on the body besides the hairs were fibres from different fabrics. I think the smoking gun will be in Melanie Prentiss’ closet.”

“I’m sure the forensics team searching the Prentiss home this evening would find that useful,” Mulder said with the clear insinuation that Ashley should be talking to Detective Fuller.

He took another pull from his beer and set the almost empty bottle down on the table with a bit too much force. Scully could tell Mulder’s patience had worn thin with the interloper on their evening plans.

“I’m sorry, did you not want this information so you could prosecute the case?” Ashley asked.

“I think you’re over here as a thinly veiled attempt to get Dana into bed,” Mulder retorted with an eye roll.

“Mulder!” Scully chided. She looked over to Ashley with flushed cheeks and smiled apologetically.

“Dana’s a grown woman, Agent Mulder,” Ashley stated. “She doesn’t need big brother types hanging around to keep her chaste.”

Scully stood up. “That’s really quite enough from both of you thank you very much. It’s been a very long day and I’d like to get some sleep.”

“But the case-” Ashley started.

Mulder took Ashley by the arm and not so gently escorted him toward the entrance. Mulder handed Ashley his jacket and kicked his shoes through the open door before waving with sarcastic glee as he closed the door.

When he turned around to see Scully she was not amused.

“What?” Mulder asked in honest ignorance.

“Mulder!” she rebuked him. “That’s a colleague of mine. A friend and-”

“Oh yeah he seemed pretty friendly,” he interrupted as he rolled his eyes. Mulder sat himself back down at the table to finish his food. “I’m not sorry.”

“I’m going to have to explain to him or anyone else he tells why my partner man-handled him out my door,” she admonished.

Mulder pulled on her wrist to sit her back down. “Can I have your spring roll?”

Scully pulled her plate closer to herself. “Not on your life.”

“Did you want him hanging around?” Mulder asked as Scully took a healthy bite of the spring roll and she looked at him with a frown. “Or are you worried about what he’s going to say?”

There was a pause between them while she mulled over the options. “It’s not the craziest thing you’ve done.”

The edge of his mouth crooked up. “I’ve never done anything unbalanced or extreme in regards to you.”

Scully looked at him challengingly. “You’re a damn liar!”

“Am I?” he jested and she shook her head. “What would be crazier than kicking some guy out of your apartment at 9:45 at night?”

“Breaking into my apartment to stop me from kissing Eddie Van Blundht. Breaking into Phillip Padgett’s apartment-”

“Okay well those aren’t crazy,” Mulder said as he held up a hand in his defense. “Those men were dangerous.”

“You traded your sister for me,” she reminded him.

“She turned out to be an alien clone so that worked out okay for both of us,” he said with a shrug. He was trying to be nonchalant but there was something romantic about Scully reciting the ways in which Mulder had come to her rescue.

“You saved me from the cannibalistic chicken voodoo farmers. You wouldn’t shoot me even with Modell in your mind and you tried to protect me from myself when those videotapes brainwashed me,” she continued. Her voice had grown softer and her hand was reaching out to stroke his arm. “You didn’t stop searching for me when Gerald Schnauz took me. You wouldn’t accept that I had cancer and fought to find a cure. You almost made a deal with the Smoking Man to get it. You gave me your gun when mothmen were trying to attack us and you did everything you could to try to stop Linda Bowman.”

“She was really after me but you were definitely a side effect,” he noted. His cheeks were flushed but he was smiling.

“Antarctica?” she reminded him.

“That was pretty heroic,” he agreed in mock confidence as he stretched a litte. “I mean, definitely goes above and beyond.”

“And a little crazy,” she said with a smile.

“Well, sure. You need to be crazy to climb through tunnels in a space ship and fight off monster-aliens and haul someone just slightly bigger than a lunch pail out through that space ship and back to a snow cat.” He was really just bragging now but it was adorable.

“And what you did for me after I was shot,” she said her voice catching in her throat.

Mulder’s jaw clenched. Mulder stayed at Scully’s place for five days after she got home from the hospital. He slept in the spare room, made her plain foods her doctor recommended and helped her change the bandage once. His anger and frustration was at an all-time high when he had passed Peyton Ritter in the hallway before Scully returned to active duty. Before Mulder could punch him in the face, Ritter practically dove into a handicapped bathroom and locked the door. Mulder felt Ritter’s fear of him was almost as close to the satisfaction he would get for assaulting a fellow agent that required no explanation to his superiors.

“That was scary for me,” Mulder admitted and Scully took his hand in hers. Her fingers felt cool against his palm and he rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand. “I don’t like that feeling.”

“That evil could be in a regular man?” Scully guessed and he nodded. “I think that’s where the basis of all evil comes from, Mulder.”

“I can see it in my father,” Mulder mused as he referred to the man his mother had an affair with, not the man who raised him. “I can see it in the men who took you and the scientists who work for them but inside the FBI feels way too close to home.”

“Isn’t that what we’ve discovered over the last six years?” she asked him.

“I thought I discovered that the truth was in you,” he whispered.

Tears glistened in her eyes and she smiled sadly at him. “I have to tell you something.”

Mulder leaned across the corner of the table to kiss her. “What’s that?”

“We need to talk about last night,” she started but his lips took hers. His mouth was cool from the beer and spicy from the ginger. His tongue was soft against hers and the five o’clock shadow scratched against her skin. She pushed on his chest reluctantly. “Mulder.”

“What?” he asked as he tried to kiss her again.

“Mulder we didn’t sleep together!” she blurted out.

He pulled back and looked at her fully. “What?”

“I mean...we slept in the same bed. Things... We did things. Um, some good things but I know we didn’t actually...” Scully made an indecipherable hand gesture. “You didn’t uh... Mulder you didn’t...”

“Penetrate you?” he said helpfully.

Her cheeks flushed and she shook her head. “No you didn’t.”

She could see the memories of last night flashing through his eyes. He remembered the kissing on their way to the bed as they tore each others clothes off. He remembered how she smiled slyly at him before taking him inside her mouth and the pleading that came from his throat for her to stop so he could still finish inside of her. Mulder licked his lower lip as he recalled the taste of her on his tongue and how she squirmed under his mouth as he tasted her juices. He made her come twice before they kissed and shared the sweetness of her on his tongue.

She could see his eyes asking, And then what?

“Why... What happened?” Mulder asked her.

“I think it’s safe to assume we fell asleep before you...” Scully stopped herself. “Or blacked out?”

“That’s reassuring,” Mulder scoffed but more at his own lack of ability than the fact that they fell asleep.

“Mulder, where does your mind cut off from last night?” she asked him.

He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. “After I made you-”

“Right, twice,” she interrupted. “And I’m not the type of woman who keeps a score card but it seems I’m up two to nothing.”

The edge of his mouth crooked up and his eyes flashed in realization. “Oh.”

The timer on the stove went off and Scully brought her plate over to the counter to tend to the food. She turned off the oven and the burner while Mulder approached from behind.

“I don’t know whether to be relieved or worried,” he said honestly.

She turned to look at him in question.

“What if you changed your mind?” he asked. “Since last night, I mean. What if you don’t want this now that you’ve got your wits about you and all the kisses today were your way of being polite?”

“I’m not that polite,” she said as she shook her head and took his hand. “I want this.”

It was the truth. She wanted him and she wanted to try again. It had been a long day and her body was ready for sleep but not without the comfort of him in her bed. She wanted to feel his body on top of hers and to feel the hardness of him in her hand. She wanted to be possessed by him and feel him pushing inside of her.

“Mulder,” she started.

He must have seen the look in her eye because he stepped towards her and closed the space between them. Her mouth opened instinctively to allow his tongue to play against hers and she felt her body ignite as the passion inside her grew.

His body pushed hers into the counter and he picked her up to sit on the ledge. Scully broke the kiss for a moment to place the plates in the sink and he smiled at her with a slight shake of his head.

“Always have to be so tidy,” he rebuked in jest.

“I’m trying to avoid obstacles, Mulder,” she retorted as she pulled his mouth back to hers. “Not create more of them.”

“I like the way you think, Agent Scully,” he murmured before kissing her neck.

Her legs spread open more to pull him closer and they began a slow rocking against one another as they kissed in her kitchen. It was primal and urgent. His hands were in her hair and down her back. She scratched at the skin through his shirt and rubbed herself into his hardness. Mulder broke the kiss momentarily to remove his shirt and hers.

His eyes traveled down from her face to her chest. His finger reached out to trace along the pale pink lacy undergarment to the front clasp and he snapped it open. He arched forward to suckle on each nipple and she put her hands behind her to lean into the touch of his mouth on her skin. Her moans filled the kitchen as he moved his mouth back up to the sensitive skin on her neck.

She reached for the button on the fly of his jeans while he reached for hers. They held a gaze before they made contact with one another. A simultaneous groan echoed into the air as they felt the desire evident inside their jeans.

“Scully,” he sighed as she stroked her hand up his turgid flesh.

She pushed his jeans and boxers down with her toes. She stroked him twice before Mulder pulled her hand away. She pushed her bottom up from the counter and he helped her pull her jeans and matching panties down off her legs. She moved herself closer to the edge of the counter and Mulder took himself in his hand. She watched as he rubbed his cock against her wet folds.

“Here?” he asked as though entering her for the first time was a sacred thing that should only be done in a bed. His voice was deep and laden with desire and she wanted to kiss away the worry that fucking in her kitchen would somehow curse them. “You don’t want... I mean, shouldn’t we do this in a bed the first time? Like adults?”

“This is adult,” she replied but she knew what he meant.

“I just mean for us. For you,” he said softly. “You deserve more than the kitchen.”

Scully could feel hear heart growing three sizes and she kissed Mulder for all he was worth. She pulled his body closer to hers with her legs as they wrapped around him and looked at him deep in the eyes.

“Okay Mulder, take me to bed.”

Mulder’s head dropped back and his jaw went slack. When he looked at her, his heart felt like it had finally started beating and she was the shock that brought him back. “Bless you.”

He scooped her up, kicked their clothing away and walked with her bottom in his hands and her legs around his waist down the hall to her bedroom.

“I’m really wanting to make a comment about how small you are but I don’t want to spoil the mood,” he admitted as they entered her room.

She wiggled out of his arms and stood on her flat feet in front of him. The top of her head reached his shoulders and the height difference was grossly magnified.

“I’m aware of the height difference between us, thank you,” she said as she took his hand. She backed herself with him in tow to the bed and she hopped up on it. “I am also aware of your size.”

Mulder looked down at his cock and the direct correlation to her face and smiled. “You’re a dirty girl, Scully.”

“You really have no idea,” she teased back.

He pushed her down on the bed and scooped an arm underneath her. In a maneuver she could only describe as caveman-ish he pulled her to the center of the bed while he crawled towards it. She felt small and feminine in his arms. She almost rebuked herself for thinking a submissive thought but with Mulder, he always made her feel safe and protected.

He might laugh at the thought, since she had frequently been put in more danger since being assigned to him. Yet whatever happened in her life, he would come raging into the battle to find her. Mulder was good for that. He was good for protecting her as much as he endangered her. Sometimes the tragedy lied in how they came together.

She pulled his face to hers and she kissed him softly. When she looked into his eyes, she knew they were saying more than what he could. If she gave him the opportunity, he might weep over this very moment. He always was a bit of a softie, especially when it came to her.

Mulder kissed down her neck and torso while his hand traced up the inside of her thigh. As his finger reached her swollen lips, they sighed.

“Scully you’re so wet.”

She moaned as his finger pushed inside of her.

“God you’re so tight,” he described. He looked down at her. “Should I stop talking?”

She shook her head. “No... I like it.”

Mulder kissed her belly and scraped the stubble on his cheek on her delicate skin. “I can smell you.”

Her fingers thread into his hair and she pushed his head down further on her body. She could see Mulder smile before he kissed the trimmed hair at her sex. His tongue lapped at her lips and then once up her centre. Scully moaned and her fingers tightened their grip.

“Mulder,” she whispered. His head popped up between her legs and he looked at her hopefully. “I don’t need that right now.”

His face contorted into one of confusion.

“I don’t need more foreplay,” she assured him while he moved himself slightly up her body. “I just want this. I want you.”

Mulder pushed himself further up the bed to kiss her breasts. “You’re such a confusing woman.”

She pushed him onto his back and Mulder laid back to help her straddle him.

“Still confused?” she asked.

Mulder shook his head and watched as she pushed herself down onto him. It stretched and burned. Her body felt the ache of a man who was built slightly too large inside her. It felt on the borderline of painful but exquisitely so.

“Holy fuck,” he groaned.

“Likewise,” she breathed as she allowed her body to accommodate his intrusion.

Her hips moved up and down and they sighed again. His hand reached out to her legs and up to her waist.

“So good, Scully,” he sighed. “I knew you’d feel this good.”

She moved one of his hands to her breast and she pushed herself up and down again. Scully began a slow rhythm of her hips as she rode him. Mulder gripped her hip tighter with the hand not massaging her breast and his jaw was slack. His wild green eyes were studying her as she sat on top of him and he made her feel beautiful. Not just that she was was physically but encompassing all of who she was.

“How do you do that?” he asked as she pushed down again.

Scully continued her small movements. “What?”

“With your-” Mulder’s voice caught. “You’re so... Holy fuck.”

Scully began rotating her hips slightly as she came down on to him and they both moaned.

“Scully uh... I’m... can you come this way?” His voice was breathless and she guessed he was getting close.

She put her hand between them and spread her wetness with her middle finger across her clit. “It’s a little more work.”

With surprising ease, Mulder flipped them over in a maneuver he must have learned at Quantico so that Scully was now underneath him. “How about now?”

He pushed his arm onto her bicep and used the other to prop himself up. She was half contained underneath him and he slammed into her hard.

“Oh God!” she cried out.

He pulled out slowly and thrust back in again with the same force. Mulder repeated the action a few more times as Scully worked the bundle of nerves at her centre. Her body was on overload from the pleasure and she cried out when he stopped suddenly.

“What are you doing?”

“Too rough?” he asked as he shifted his hips.

She shook her head. “No. It’s good.”

“I can be softer,” he told her and she smiled.

Mulder leaned in and kissed her softly. Her finger continued to work in slow circular motions across her clit while he kissed her. She felt as if she was stretching with him inside of her and he pushed deep to rock against her cervix. Mulder kissed her neck and nipped at the skin. He paid extra attention to the spots that caused her to sigh and moan. His hand that was pushing her down into the mattress moved to her breast and pinched roughly at her nipple. She felt her inner folds begin to swell and she knew she was about to come.

“Oh god!” she cried out in an uncharacteristic squeal. “Oh my god!”

Mulder held still for a moment then began pumping inside of her. Scully felt another wave of her orgasm wash over her as he moved in time with the manipulations of her inner walls. She felt as though her body was riding a long flood of pleasure. It felt exquisite as the endorphins released into her system. It was a rush she needed until her body felt limp.

She opened her eyes to see him watching her and smiled. “That was really something.”

“I saw,” he said. He was holding very still and she was grateful for that. “Let me know when you’re ready.”

She nodded and touched his face tenderly. “I’m ready.”

He pulled almost all the way out of her and pushed back in. He began a slow steady rhythm with his hips. The sound of his pelvis making contact with hers, her soft moans as he fucked her gently and Mulder’s deep grunts as he worked toward his orgasm was all that could be heard in the room. The rest of the world was fading away as she felt herself flying out into this moment of pure pleasure.

Suddenly she felt grateful for their sleepiness the night before. She would remember everything about this moment forever. He pushed his face into her neck as he sped up his rhythm and his teeth sunk into the skin along her her shoulder.

“Fuck, Scully,” he grunted. His hips sped up and he slammed into her hard, one last time as he emptied himself inside of her.

She ran her fingers gently up his back as he twitched on top of her. This was the most quiet moment they had shared since they played baseball. Except there was no audience of a poor boy and the prelude to a kiss. This was certainty and happiness. This was a blissful moment they finally had after six years of fighting and struggling.

The rest of the world was trying to get in her mind. What would they do after today? How do they handle their partnership from here? How will they work along side one another?

“Scully?” he started. He kissed the spot in which he had marked earlier. “Dana?”

She looked him in the eyes and knew what he was about to say was going to be monumental or a joke. She hated that sometimes it would be one when she needed the other. Right now she didn’t know which.

“Yes?”

“I love you,” he stated.

His words hung in the air for a beat. She knew he meant it and she knew how she felt. She pushed down the feelings of axiety and confusion.

“I love you too,” she whispered.

Mulder buried his face into the curve of her neck and sighed. “Oh thank god. I thought you were going to say oh brother again.”

Scully pushed on his chest and he laid on the bed next to her. “I don’t think you meant it then. Or... Not this way.”

“I realized a long time ago how I felt,” he said looked over at her. “I know I’m pretty stunted in how to show it.”

“I realized that when you gave me Superstars of the Superbowl after I came back from the near dead,” she retorted and Mulder stuck out his lower lip. Scully hopped off the bed and trotted to her bathroom to clean herself up. “I suppose we’re both a little stunted.”

“Just a little?” he called after her and she smiled.

He came into the bathroom to clean himself off as she was flushing the toilet.

“Well every psychology book I’ve read would tell us we have to actually talk about our feelings.”

Scully washed her hands and put her hands on her hips. It was a stance she took with him in the office and Mulder grinned at her nakedness.

“Are you ready for that?” she asked as she tried to fight her own smile.

Mulder kissed her forehead. “I’m ready G-Woman.”


	6. Blend

Case Report:

 

" _On May 23 of 1999, a body was reported inside Jay's Cleaners in Baltimore Maryland. The body belonged to the janitor, deceased name was Leonard Alvin Crowley._

_Preliminary findings of the body and the state of the scene pointed towards a paranormal element which brought in the outside help of myself Special Agent Fox Mulder, and my partner Dana Scully with the FBI._

_An autopsy did not prove to find any cause of death however a full toxicology report found him to have ingested a small amount of formaldehyde and it was assumed his heart stopped after an air injection into his blood stream._

_Melanie Prentiss among four other accomplices were found guilty of premeditated murder. Five women from the Stoneleigh Elementary Moms Book Club had discovered through a night of sharing three bottles of rose that they were all having an affair with Leonard Alvin Crowley. Accomplices in his murder included his wife, Evelyn Crowley, his mistress Melanie Prentiss and their friends through the book club Gloria Wise, Delia Alexander and Jacqueline Wade._

_What the women discovered through alcohol and lowered inhibitions is that they were guilty of the same thing. Evelyn Crowley was unhappy in her marriage and worried her husband had been distant._

_Once Melanie Prentiss admitted to the affair, Gloria Wise, Delia Alexander and Jacqueline Wade admitted to sleeping with Mr Crowley also._

_Reasons for staging the murder like a poltergeist was the result Melanie Prentiss’ plan to potentially frame her husband for insurance fraud and send him to jail so she wouldn’t lose her house or children in a divorce._

_Tom Dillard was attempting to defend the women as one case yet the DA’s office was certain it would be an easy trial._

_Melanie Prentiss’ court date would fall two months after they arrested her and she was arraigned on bail where she moved into the maid’s quarters of the home she shared with her husband and children._

 

_Dana Scully also has a lovely backside."_

 

"Mulder you can't type that in a report," Scully rebuked as she reached over his shoulder to delete his last paragraph.

 

"You wanted me to present a thorough report and it should be known you look really good in scrubs," he said. He reached his hand out to rub his hand down her back before giving her bottom a quick pat. He pulled his hand away quickly when he caught her look. "I'm sorry. You can report me to your senior agent if you need."

 

Scully pushed Mulder's chair back from the desk and spun him towards her. She perched herself on his lap and leaned into his ear. "If you keep forgetting to keep your hands to yourself while we are at work Agent Mulder, I will take this up with _your_ senior agent."

 

Mulder pulled her closer to him. "If you tell on me to Skinner for grabbing your bottom then I'm going to tell him what you did last night in the parking garage."

 

Scully ran her tongue up his ear. "He'd never believe you."

 

Mulder hardly believed it himself. "You got me there."


End file.
